It's a world of firsts when you're under five - from walking to words, relationships to raging in the supermarket. There are loads of fun ways to practise social and emotional skills with your child. Have a read, then have a go!

If your family needs support for anxiety, depression or other mental health conditions, a range of health professionals are on hand to help. You can also have a chat in our community forums or get in touch with the Beyond Blue Support Service.

Support beyondblue

You are currently:

Psychological treatments

Psychological treatments or ‘talking therapies’ are an effective way of treating both anxiety and depression, and are suitable for all age groups including young people.

They work by helping you to change your thinking patterns and improve your coping skills so you're better equipped to deal with life's stresses and conflicts. As well as supporting your recovery, psychological therapies can also help you stay well by identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviour.

There are many different types of psychological therapies, and the ones we’ve listed below all have good evidence for their effectiveness. Your health professional can help you find one that you’re comfortable with. They will also tailor the therapy to your needs, helping address your specific issues, worries, thoughts or fears.

At the start of the process, I attended the counselling sessions with my daughter. I continued to see this counsellor throughout the entire journey, and still see her today. She essentially coached me on how to parent a child with OCD and helped me to keep my family together.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

Effective treatment for anxiety and depression

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a structured psychological treatment which recognises that the way we think (cognition) and act (behaviour) affects the way we feel. CBT involves working with a professional (therapist) to identify thought and behaviour patterns that are either making you more likely to develop anxiety or depression, or stopping you from getting better. Once you've recognised any unhelpful patterns that are contributing to your anxiety or depression, you can make changes to replace these with new ones that improve your mood and coping skills.

For example, you might find yourself stuck in catastrophising thinking patterns. This means thinking the worst, believing something is far worse than it actually is, or anticipating things will go wrong. CBT helps by teaching you to think more realistically and focus on positive problem-solving. If you actively avoid situations or things that cause anxiety, CBT can help you face your fears and approach these situations more rationally.

Professionals may use a range of techniques in CBT. Examples include:

evaluating how realistic your thoughts are by looking at evidence for or against them

teaching you how to solve any problems you’re facing.

teaching relaxation and breathing techniques, particularly muscle relaxation, to control anxiety and the physical symptoms of tension.

Behaviour therapy

Effective treatment for anxiety and depression

While behaviour therapy is a major component of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), unlike CBT it doesn’t attempt to change your thoughts or beliefs directly. Instead it focuses on encouraging activities that are rewarding, pleasant or give you a sense of satisfaction, in an effort to reverse the patterns of avoidance, withdrawal and worry that make anxiety and depression worse.

Behaviour therapy can be useful if anxiety is getting in the way of you doing certain things. Avoiding frightening situations can mean you don’t get a chance to face your fear and prove to yourself you can cope with it, in turn causing your anxiety to persist. Behaviour therapy for anxiety relies mainly on a treatment called 'graded exposure'. There are a number of different approaches to exposure therapy, but they're all based on exposing you to the specific things that make you anxious. This experience helps you cope with fearful situations rather than avoiding or escaping them, as well as putting your worry about the situation into perspective.

Interpersonal therapy (IPT)

Effective treatment for depression

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is based on the idea that relationship problems can have a significant effect on our wellbeing, and can contribute to someone developing depression. On the flip side, supportive, happy relationships are good for our mental health. IPT helps you recognise patterns in your relationships that make you more vulnerable to depression. Identifying these patterns means you can focus on improving relationships, coping with grief and resolving issues and conflict.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

Effective treatment for depression

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is generally delivered in groups and involves a type of meditation called 'mindfulness meditation'. This teaches you to focus on the present moment – just noticing whatever you’re experiencing, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant – without trying to change it. At first, this approach is used to focus on physical sensations (like breathing), but then moves on to feelings and thoughts.

MBCT can help to stop your mind wandering off into thoughts about the future or the past, and avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings. This is thought to be helpful in preventing depression from returning because it encourages you to notice feelings of sadness and negative thinking patterns early on, before they become fixed. As a result, you’re able to deal with warning signs earlier and more effectively.

Family therapy

Family therapy helps family members and close friends to learn about anxiety or depression. It helps people find new ways to support and get along with the family member who has anxiety or depression.

They can do this by:

assisting their loved one with some of his/her daily responsibilities

helping to identify stressful situations at home or work

helping to find other ways to solve practical and emotional problems

keeping an eye out for changes in symptoms.

Individual, group or online – what’s best for me?

Some people prefer to work one on one with a professional, while others get more out of a group environment – it’s really up to you.

Treatment or therapy groups are usually run by a trained mental health professional for a set time (e.g. 10 weeks). There’s normally an assessment before the first session and partners may be invited to attend at least one session in the program.

Online and phone services

If you find the idea of seeing someone a bit daunting, or there isn’t anyone locally that you can access, online and phone counselling can be a great help.

Online services, also known as e-therapies or computer-aided psychological therapy, can be just as effective as face-to-face services for people with mild to moderate anxiety or depression. Most e-therapies follow the same principles as CBT or behaviour therapy by helping you to identify and change patterns of thinking and behaviour, and the structured nature of these treatments means they’re well suited to being delivered online.

You work through the program by yourself, and although e-therapies can be used with or without help from a professional, most involve some form of support from a therapist. This can be via telephone, email, text, or instant messaging, and helps you to successfully apply what you’re learning to your life.

If you'd like to explore what's on offer and what might work for you, the Australian Government's mindhealthconnect website has a library of online programs.

Programs for young people

Tailored online psychological programs are also available for young people with mild to moderate anxiety or depression. These programs, such as moodgym and ecouch, help young people to identify and change their patterns of thinking and behaviour. Most programs are self-driven and some offer contact with a health professional.

These programs are not the best option if the young person has severe anxiety or depression; that’s when personal contact with a health professional is essential.

Seeking support

Beyond Blue is registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). Eligible tax-deductible donations have Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status with the Australian Tax Office.